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Stockholm

Digital services that provide access to several different mobility services are referred to as Mobility-as-a-Service, MaaS, and include everything from enhanced travel planners to mobility subscription models that bundle new mobility services with traditional public transport.

Mobility enhances urban life and accessibility; the ability to access and benefit from city amenities and opportunities. Making cities more sustainable is a key aspiration reflected in several of the UN 2030 SDGs. Although transportation is necessary it brings many challenges: as fossil fuel dependence, emissions, injuries and deaths, and gives rise to noise and congestion. Safety and equality in public transportation are major concerns.

Sonja Forward, Senior Researcher at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), has been in charge of a project looking at business travel and how this can become more sustainable. Sonja believes there are various ways in which to accomplish this:

During next year, K2 will enter a new phase with a partly new research focus. In support of this change, a new international advisory group has been formed with researchers representing a broad experience in public transport studies of various kinds.

More and more people in Sweden choose to travel by train, and the number of passengers has more than doubled in the past 30 years. With increasing climate awareness, the number of travellers choosing to go by rail is set to increase even faster than before, and more and more departures are fully booked.

Public transport authorities and providers have invested heavily in technological solutions in order to improve the accessibility of public transport. Despite this, individuals with functional impairments use public transport less than other groups. To determine what obstacles there are for passengers with disabilities in public transport, Vanessa Stjernborg from K2 and Malmö University has studied complaints received by the public transport authority in Stockholm, Storstockholms lokaltrafik, SL.

K2 strives to strengthen research on public transport by quickly capturing new research ideas and perspectives. Therefore, K2 now encourages the partner organizations' employees to submit proposals for smaller K2 projects. All projects should connect to public transport operators and their challenges. These projects should also be clearly related to K2's research agenda for 2020-2024.

“So far there is no clear evidence that new technology makes DRT more efficient from an economic perspective. On the other hand, travelers who use these new systems being tested, are generally very satisfied”, says Fredrik Pettersson-Löfstedt.

Fredrik has, among other things, conducted field work in Sydney to study new technical solutions on-site.

“We lived with young children in Sydney, without access to a car of our own. We found however, that using the on-demand trials was not possibly for us since children under four are not allowed on these buses”, says Fredrik.

“Information that takes into account the traveler's individual context and needs can increase the attractiveness of public transport and contribute to more people choosing public transport”, says Åse Jevinger.

In order to be able to provide travelers with individually adapted information, there is a need to, among other things, identify which vehicle the passenger is currently on and what alternative public transport solutions are available from upcoming stops.